Ostia Transfer 14 Week 3

Ecuadorian Food, toe surgery number 5 and peanut butter pasta!

What a week, this one will actually be short because we had to stay home so stinking much! 

Monday was really good though, we had a good Monday night, we went and visited a family here in Ostia. They have a special needs son and they can’t come to Church because he has to be watched 24/7 , they are amazing people. A lot of people would find it easy to complain or to feel like God is unfair but instead they understand that they have been entrusted with a special son of God and they put their all into loving and taking care of him. 

Tuesday we had District Meeting here in Ostia and we set some goals for February and talked about the importance of us being truly converted to the Gospel as we share it. Whether or not we feel to sing the song of redeeming love everyday as we share the Gospel like it says in Alma 5:26. After DDM we came home, grabbed so,e lunch and headed to Rome for a Dr. Appointment... :( Everything went okay but they told me I had to have another surgery on Thursday for these dang toes! 

Wednesday we had my last day of freedom, Anziano Empey wanted to try out some finding on this train stop near the pier so we tried it out. Well... there wasn’t an person. We were bummed but we know now that it’s not worth it! Haha we had a good morning anyway! In the evening we got to visit the Cevallas Family who are from Ecuador. They’re awesome! I don’t speak Spanish to save my life anymore so I’m glad they speak Italian! Classic but so good rice and meat, buono!

Thursday unfortunately we had to leave a little early and get to the hospital in Rome around lunch time. Then we waited and waited and waited. The surgery went well, they couldn’t get my toe numb so they said “Sign here, we’re gonna knock you out” and that was the last thing I remember... 

Unfortunately Friday and Saturday were at home... I read a lot of scriptures, got laundry done, did some cooking, cleaning and drove myself crazy with my foot in the air! 

Sunday was finally time to escape! We got a ride to Church and the Sunday meetings were great as always! The Merx Family is American, the only ones in the ward and they have lived here for a few years. Brother Merx works for Ford as like an accountant or something with numbers... they invited us over for lunch after church. They’re probably the cutest little family and we had a great time together! Ecco the peanut butter pasta... it had chicken, bell peppers, peanuts and peanut butter! She sent me the recipe so one day when I’m in America and peanut butter doesn’t cost 5 bucks an ounce I might try it! 

Today was so good, we went to Rome and the Whitings, a Senior Couple that works in the YSA Institute, helped me with more family history! It was a lot of fun! It’s really cool to look at documents and stuff from your ancestors and it got me really excited to do their temple work! 

A spiritual thought that we shared a few times this week that I really like comes from Ether and the story of the Brother of Jared. They had made what they called barges to cross the sea and they were closed. The Brother of Jared asks three questions and Heavenly Father gives him three different answers. He asks how will they breathe? How will they steer? And how will they see? To respond to the first question God says to drill wholes in the boat and open them when they need air and close them during storms. He tells him what to do and he does it and it works. Then he says “don’t worry, I’ll steer you to the promised land with the wind” so he takes care of everything. The third question however he gives a little different response. He asks the Brother of Jared to come up with a solution on his own and try it. He trusts him and the Brother of Jared has so much faith that he carves out 16 stones and says that if God touches them they will be lit and light the boats. Elder Richard G Scott says this: 

“It is vitally important to recognize that the Lord also responds a third way to prayer by withholding an answer when the prayer is offered. Why would He do that?

He is our perfect Father. He loves us beyond our capacity to understand. He knows what is best for us. He sees the end from the beginning. He wants us to act to gain needed experience:

When He answers yes, it is to give us confidence.

When He answers no, it is to prevent error.

When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth. We are expected to assume accountability by acting on a decision that is consistent with His teachings without prior confirmation. We are not to sit passively waiting or to murmur because the Lord has not spoken. We are to act.”

I know that God answers prayers, I know he’ll answer yours. Don’t be afraid if he withholds an answer for a time, he trusts you! 

Have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 2

The Vatican, Cold Showers, Zone Conference, and Egyptian Food!

Hey guys! This one is going to be shortish because I’m tired of writing emails! Haha but it was a good week! As I mentioned last week we went to the Vatican on P-Day! It was super cool and there are so many beautiful things! We had a good evening afterwards with some finding!

Tuesday we had District Meeting, our first together! I think it went pretty well, I like having an opportunity to give a Training every week, it’s a lot of fun and you get to help other missionaries! We talked about what a successful missionary is and then about the importance of setting goals and making plans. That afternoon we got the invites for Zone Conference and it was exactly that so I was pretty stoked to have my District Prepared. Anziano Balzotti came and did a bunch of Mr. Fix-it stuff in our apartment. And we had a good evening with English Course. It’s pretty small here but I think we’re going to try and grow it a little bit! We also got to see the broadcast about President Nelson! I’m so excited about the new first Presidency and I know it’s inspired of God! I think President Oaks has a lot to offer and I’m excited to see how it goes! Also our Hot water heater went out Tuesday so we have had cold showers for a week! Which isn’t bad in July but it’s kind of chilly in January! 

Wednesday was kind of a bust, we had planned to go do service for a member who lives forever away and she cancelled on us last minute so we were scrambling to find some stuff to do! We tried to go volunteer at the soup kitchen because they always need help but they had a bus full of High School students so they turned us down so we did some finding and a little weekly Planning and then in the evening some more finding with a lot of no shows for our appointments! 

Thursday we headed into Rome bright and early for our interviews with President and Sister Pickerd, I love seeing them! We turned right around and came back to Ostia, we didn’t really have much planned but we were able to make the best of it! They had train problems so we ended up going back to Rome so we could be at an early leadership meeting! So we got to stay with the missionaries in Rome, Anziano Youngblood and his companion Anziano Young! They’re awesome and we had a lot of fun! 

Friday was Zone Conference! It was a really good conference and we focused so much on the Restoration and how special and important it is. The spirit was so strong and I really got a lot out of it. When we came back we had an appointment with Daniele, we taught him the Restoration and it went so well! Then we went with him to meet our Egyptian friend and they fed us Egyptian food for dinner! It was way good! Most of it at least... there was this knee of some animal that was just straight fat and it was gross but the rice and the meat and everything was so good! 

Saturday was interesting and full of no one showing up to meet us! Kind of a let down but we made it through! We were able to meet this one guy named Massimo. We were going to his address and it was a really nice kind of rich neighborhood and I was really impressed and then we rang his door bell and he came out of this shack with like a garage door and he was in his underwear... that was an interesting lesson! He put pants of Thank God! 

Sunday was hard... apparently half of the ward got sick this week so there were only like 25 people in Church and no one from the bishopric so it was a little bit of a struggle but the spirit was still there and that’s the important thing! We went to this place called Acilia but it got super dark so we came back to the city and did some finding to finish off the night! This member made us some giant meatballs and they were really good! 

Today I was supposed to go to Rome and do Family History but they’re working on the website so we’ve just been chilling here! The people came to look at our hot water heater, they came an hour late and then found that there are some wires burnt but they didn’t bring anything to fix it with so we have to make another appointment! I love showering in a pot... haha but life is good! 

I hope you all have a great week and remember to look for the hand of God in your everyday life, I know it’s there! 

I love you all!

Anziano Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma 

PS sorry the email isn’t actually short! Haha Tricked ya!

Cosenza Transfer 13 Week 6

An interesting week for sure, a little bitter sweet, so,e good memories and as always some good food to be eaten! 

Monday night we finished our deep cleaning for the most part and we went to go play Tennis with Francesco! It was so fun! He gave me a little tennis lesson and I was starting to get it towards the end! Haha Not my best but it was fun! Then we went to his house and watched the Movie 17 Miracles which is a story about the Mormon Pioneers crossing in a hand cart company. It was pretty good, we were trying to help him understand the importance of the Restoration and what it means for us. It was a good night! 

Tuesday District Meeting in Catanzaro, Anziano Velardi really helped us to make some progress and grow our District point of view. He’s a good District Leader, we’re lucky to have him! Then we got some burgers and fries and headed back to Cosenza! Little bit of finding and then some English Course and no awkwardness so that was good!

Wednesday morning was a little rough. Obviously we learned of the passing of President Thomas S. Monson. I knew right away that what I needed to do was pray for comfort for his family. President Monson has been an incredible tool in the Lord’s hands and I am so happy that he is reunited with his wife again. About an hour later we received a text message from the Branch President that Sister Anna Filippelli, the Sister that has been in the hospital passed away that morning. The same prompting came to mind and as my companion and I prayed for the comfort of both President Monson’s Family and Anna’s I felt so comforted myself knowing that God has a plan for us and that they are both in a better place, doing missionary work and not suffering at all. That evening we went and set up chairs and got the Chapel ready for the funeral that was held the next day. Funerals in Italy happen right away, the next day. There’s no funeral homes there’s just a hallway in the hospital for a viewing the same day they pass away. 

We had already planned an exchange with the Statte Anziani so they were here, we sent them to do some finding while we went to the funeral at the Church. I was really honored to be asked by her daughter to speak for a few minutes. There were a lot of non members there so I was a little nervous but I spoke about how death makes us think a lot about life and how we see people after they die. I talked about how we see success in others when we look at their posterity. Her two daughters and three grandsons. The daughters spoke after me and they said some beautiful words about eternal families and bore their testimonies. It was a beautiful and simple ceremony, just like she would have wanted. 

Then we got our exchange on, I got to work with Anziano Sacco which was good! We had a lot of fun and we taught a sweet lesson to one of our Investigators Claudia. We said the prayer and then she just started asking questions about what we had taught her last time... it was awesome. You could tell that she had been thinking about it! We had Lina (Returned missionary) there and she helped a lot! More finding, found this place that looked like Chic-fil-a and was pretty good! 

Friday we weekly planned and then went up to Sister Spizzirri’s house, she’s the German lady! She made us some Pasta Fagioli... Fagioli is beans so it was pasta with chick peas, really good with a frittata of sausage and some cheese! We planned a Branch activity together and had a good time! We spent the evening finding and it was really cold!

Saturday we went to teach English to a member’s niece, we went over and we helped her with it and then she taught us some Cosentino Dialect. We then got to teach her and her neighbor the restoration and give them Book of Mormons, we’re going back next week! Then we went to Francesco’s to make some American food! We made pancakes and had peanut butter. Unfortunately his Gospel interest isn’t super strong, he’s more interested in being friends. He does want to come to Utah and visit Ruiz and I later this year when he is going to be in the United States! I hope it works out! 

Sunday was an awesome meeting block, fasting and testimony meeting was great, almost everyone bore their testimony. The rest of Church was great! After Church we went to Sister Minieri’s with her son and Sister Spadafora and Sister Spizzirri to make homemade Gnocchi! It’s the pasta that’s made out of potatoes, it was pretty good! It was just more fun to make than anything! We took lots of photos and videos! 

We got to share a cool spiritual Thought about how when we look in the mirror we should see our potential as we are made in his image. A lot of times however we don’t see that potential and it’s because we aren’t there yet, there’s work to be done. Like the pasta dough it has to be worked and molded to become perfect like God. So when you look in the mirror what do you see? Do you see God’s potential for you? What work needs to be done to reach that potential? 

I love you all and I hope you are having an amazing 2018!

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Cosenza Transfer 13 Week 3

Luke 2:11-12,14

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

It’s Christmas! What a great time to be a missionary and what better message to share than the message of the restored Gospel! He lives! If it wasn’t for the events of Easter we wouldn’t celebrate the birth of Christ so in this next week I would encourage you all to think about what Christmas means for you. Why do you celebrate Christmas?

Alright on with the week... once again it flew by! 

Monday night we had some good finding going on! We are still trying to #LightTheWorld or #SiiUnaLuce so we spent some good time on the streets just talking it up about Jesus!

Tuesday morning we had some errands for Zone Conference to do and then we got in the car to head to Taranto! We picked up the Anziani from Catanzaro on the way and had a pretty uneventful almost 3 hour drive to Zone Conference! When we got there we got the Chapel set up and then President and Sister Pickerd got there with the Assistants and we started interviews right away... then we planned our training with the Sister Training Leader Sister Barnes. It was a good day but we didn’t have much time to go finding or talk to people on the street so it was kind of boring. 

Wednesday was the conference and it went super good! Technology was not our friend though... it went well without it though. Anziano Ruiz and Sorella Barnes and I gave a training on leaving people with commitments, inviting people to change and how important it is. I got to share a little bit of my Mom’s conversion story which brought the spirit really well. I’ve been thinking a lot about my Mom’s conversion and where I would be if it wasn’t for some 16 year old Mormon boy that brought my Mom to Church. A lot of things would be very different! After the conference we did a nativity scene as a Zone... I was a sheep... it was hysterical and so much fun. We were also so blessed to have Sister Pickerd with us this round of Zone Conferences for the first time in like 6 months. She’s doing well and I’m so glad to have her back! She keeps President Pickerd on his toes! One of the families in our branch lives like an hour away from Cosenza and so we went to visit them on the way back from Taranto and I thought it was going to be just off the freeway but I was wrong... we ended up getting there at like 8:30 which is when we would have had to leave to get home on time. So we shared a quick thought and were on our way! 

We brought the Taranto Anziani home with us so we could do an exchange with them on Thursday. I got to work with Anziano Tucker which was way cool, the last exchange I did with them was like his fourth day in the mission and he had no idea what was going on back in Napoli. He’s much improved and doing really well, we went to the University and had some really cool conversations! Got some phone numbers and then we went back to Cosenza, grabbed the other Anziani and went to Sorella Spizzirri’s house for lunch! It was pretty good, Italians like to cook with pumpkin so they made this risotto with pumpkin 🎃 and then like a roast with some dang good sauce. We laughed a ton and had a really good time. Then we read the nativity story together. Finished off the day with some finding and a bomb lesson with one of our Investigators Nelson and then panzarrotti (pizza rolls) from this ghetto shack! 

Friday was taking the Anziani to the train station bright and early and then weekly Planning, we went to do some service for a member and carried a new closet thing upstairs. We took some cool pictures while we waited for her. Anziano Ruiz made us a bomb ragù for lunch and then I was dead tired... I haven’t taken a nap in like 4 transfers but I snoozed for 20 minutes before jumping back in to the work. We brought Nelson some clothes so he could come to Church with us yesterday and then we did some more #LightTheWorld finding! 

Saturday we did some finding and made some homemade chocolate chip cookies for the Christmas lunch yesterday at Church. We also went and saw Sister Filipelli who is now in the hospital. We gave her a blessing and she was really happy to see us. We did some more finding and that was the day.

Sunday was ok, we went to get Nelson but he was “sick” and couldn’t come to Church. I was bummed... but the Heymans were visiting in our Branch yesterday because they called Anziano Heyman as a high councilor. It was good to see them, they’re pretty great! We had two of our 4 new Converts come to Church and we had a bomb lesson about the Book of Mormon and they were testifying to the investigator that was there and the spirit was so good! The lunch afterwards went pretty well, not very many people stayed around which was a bummer but little by little we’ll get there! We visited a couple of members in the afternoon and brought the sacrament to Sorella Filipelli in the hospital. 

Today we are doing some Christmas shopping for each other and then we are going over to Sister Spadafora’s house for some cooking lessons! I’m pretty stoked! It should be a lot of fun and she loves having us help! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week before Christmas, remember the reason for the season and share the light that you all have! 

Love,

Anziani Jacob Bellucci

Cosenza Transfer 13 Week 2

A little bit of rejection, a lot of Christmas spirit, and a good amount of Christmas Cheer!

It’s been a really good week and we have worked really hard... unfortunately we haven’t been super fruitful but I’m hoping it’s because Heavenly Father is waiting to give us a break through this next week! 

Monday night we had a Family Home Evening with some single members in the Church and we talked about General Conference and we ended up on the topic of unity. “If you are not one you are not mine” and that theme has carried through the rest of the week. 

Tuesday we got up and headed for Catanzaro for District Meeting and we had a really good meeting. Anziano Ruiz and I did the training and we talked about goals. We had each companionship take 5 minutes in another room to set goals for December, specifically how many new Investigators they wanted to find in the month of December. Then we came back and made a District goal and the spirit was so strong and everyone felt super inspired to push ourselves and make it happen. Then we had lunch together before heading our separate ways! I sat next to the Heymans, the senior couple in Crotone and we had a great time! Anziano Ruiz and I came back and hit the streets before heading to English Course and then some more street contacting afterwards! 

Wednesday was basically the same thing except we woke up at 5:45 because we went to the District Meeting in Taranto to give the same training. It was an even bigger success there! President called us in the middle of the training and we stepped out and when we came back they were talking about how they wanted to make companionship goals and a District goal! They were on top of it! We got some pizza afterwards and it was actually pretty good! It was my first pizza since leaving Napoli so I was a little nervous! Napoli pizza is soooooooo good! Hitting the road back home and finding pretty hard in the evening! Then we got to meet with Francesco, he’s really cool. We wanted to help him understand the idea of the Apostasy and the importance of it but he is really content with his faith. He doesn’t see the need for a Restoration because he doesn’t think the Apostasy happened... we haven’t given up though! It was a really good lesson though and it strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon, if the Book of Mormon is true then that means the Apostasy really did happen, that Joseph Smith really was called as a prophet and that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ! 

Thursday was a lot of Christmas! But first we went to the University, we usually try to do English Course publicity there but we decided to do a more direct approach with Gospel finding. It was actually kind of sad... I would say 1 out of every 10 people we talked to said they believed in God, and not a single one of them said they went to Church or actively loved their religion. We had some really good conversations but the younger generation has just seen so many mistakes or errors in their Church that they just don’t believe in God at all. It also makes them not want to learn about anything else. Anyway after a few hours at the University we headed to Sister Spadafora‘s to eat some lunch and then we helped her decorate for Christmas! She is a widow and last year she didn’t even set up the Christmas tree but she really wanted to this year so we went up to the attic and got down a million decorations and we had so much fun decorating and listening to Christmas music! I took quite a few pictures! Then we read Luke Chapter 2:1-20, the story of the Nativity to remember the true reason for Christmas. It was really nice and it made her day!

Friday we did weekly Planning and I was about to throw some chicken in the oven for lunch when the phone rang and the Lopez family invited us over for lunch and the real reason is they aren’t tall enough to hang up their Christmas lights so we got to help with that too! It was good to see them, they have two foster daughters and they invited the daughters brother over for the holidays because he lives in a group home/institution. They all seemed really happy which was great. We grabbed an Orzo (coffee substitute) with Francesco and talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon. And then finding, finding, finding! 

Saturday morning I made brownies to give to the people that live in our building and then Francesco called us and asked if we wanted to go and play tennis with him. 🎾 Well yeah we do! It was a lot of fun, none of us are very good but we all had a good time for sure! It’s a good work out too, I was thinking I might like it when I get home! We went over to his house for lunch and we helped him practice his English. He is 40 years old, not married, he’s a pediatrician, he speaks English and Spanish and obviously Italian... we’re going to try to find him a wife! Haha We went home to study Italian and Sister Spadafora called us to give her a blessing, poor thing the fell backwards and smacked her head. She doesn’t know how to sit on the couch and watch a Hallmark movie though. Instead she was making homemade doughnuts for us when we showed up. She’s a saint! We passed by Emilio on Saturday night and the New Movement Lady was there again, I think she does her shopping on Saturday nights! She was super nice though, she actually started talking to us about the Church and it turns out we have very similar beliefs and she said she was going to come to our Church sometime! Then she said she would have us over for lunch sometime! Super nice... 

Sunday :) Anziano Ruiz gave a talk in Church and he did a good job! There were almost 30 people in Church which makes us the biggest sacrament meeting attendance in Calabria by like 20 people! We had a good lesson with one of the New Converts. He hasn’t been reading the Book of Mormon! He committed so I hope he does it! After Church I made some bomb barbecue chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots and Anziano Ruiz was loving it. It was pretty good if I do say so myself! He likes to cook so he helped me a lot! Then we decided to try out Rende for some finding, it’s the neighboring city and we found this park with Christmas music but it was kind of a ghost town so we headed Back to Cosenza. So there is this huge street called Corso Mazzini and it’s not a street you can drive on it’s all foot traffic and it’s just lined with shops. Literally everyone goes there, there’s no exaggeration thousands of people on that street every night. Which sounds great for missionaries but it’s actually kind of impossible to talk to people so we hit up the side streets last night and it was super good, we had some awesome conversations! 

Overall it was a good week! We got a lot of rejection, met a lot of rude people but it’s not their fault, they’re just not ready for the Gospel yet. In this Christmas season keep your hearts open and share the Gospel. Keep the missionaries in your areas busy by sharing the Gospel with your friends and family. Christmas is a time of miracles and Heavenly Father could use you to make those miracles happen!

Merry Christmas! 

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Cosenza Transfer 13 Week 1

Transfers took me by surprise again! I was not expecting anything to change in our companionship this Transfer... Anziano Youngblood and I really got along super well so I was surprised to get the call and find out that he’s going to Rome 1 to be the new Zone Leader there and I get to train a new Zone Leader! So my new companion is Anziano Ruiz! He was actually my District Leader back in Napoli so I know him pretty well! He’s super cool and it’s been really good so far! 

So the week! As you know I ripped my pants on Monday on the way to Catanzaro so that rendered a trip to the Mall when we got there for P-Day! It was  trip and I bought some pants along with a couple other things! Then we came back and emailed for a little bit. We got to do a little mini-exchange with the Catanzaro Anziani and I got to work with Anziano Cooney. He’s in his 4th Transfer (I guess 5th now) and he’s so funny! He is the goofiest kid I’ve ever met and he’s just a lot of fun to be around. Being pretty young in the mission it’s really hard to stop people sometimes and so he has found that he loves to talk to people with dogs. He just goes and asks if he can pet them and then inevitably they ask him why he’s here from America! We talked to this guy and you could tell he was really angry with God. He opened up to us and explained that his daughter passed away and he just can’t believe that God would do something like that. How could taking away someone’s child be a part of God’s plan? We got to testify to him of the Plan of Salvation and God’s love for him. I got to be pretty bold and tell him that there is no other church on the Earth today that has what we have. The power to seal families together for time and all eternity. It was cool, they taught him on Wednesday!  

Then the calls came! President called and told us what’s happening and that was the end of the night! I’m really bummed that Anziano Youngblood is gone but I think Anziano Ruiz and I are going to have a lot of fun! 

Tuesday morning we had our last District Meeting together and it was really good! Anziano Valerdi did a good job of training us on Unity and working together as companionships, Districts, and a Zone. Then we went to King to get some really good hamburgers and fries! It was way good! Then we came home, did some finding and had English Course! 

Wednesday was full of saying goodbye to members and a little bit of finding and Kebab eating! So we went to say goodbye to Sister Spadafora, she’s so sweet. She’s like the Mom/Grandma of this Branch and I just love her! She said that she doesn’t really feel like putting up her Christmas tree but on the other hand she really likes it. So... Anziano Ruiz and I are going to go over and set it up with her and it will be our shared Christmas tree! I’m pretty excited! Then we went and saw some other people before going to Sister Spizzirri’s house for lunch! She is German but married an Italian. She just got back two weeks ago from serving a mission as a temple worker in the Freiberg temple! She’s pretty cool, she made us healthy food that didn’t make me feel like 100000 pounds so that was good! Her testimony was so incredible, that’s one of the things I have grown to love on my mission is asking people about their conversions. Almost everyone here is a Convert and even if they’re not they still have a story and the spirit is so strong when you share those things! Came back and studied, visited the Lopez family and then did some finding until we went to see Emilio. There was this crazy “New Movement” lady that was trying to convert us and I thought she was going to sprinkle me with holy water. Then after she was done preaching she said “Can I offer you something?” And we said no thank you so she bought us this big bag of olives! Then we got to actually talk to Emilio and he was like “Well we have to say a prayer together before you leave!” And for the first time he agreed to say it which was really cool. He said a beautiful prayer. We finished the night off with Anziano Youngblood’s favorite; Kebab! Haha it’s so good! 

Thursday was crazy! I took Anziano Youngblood to the train station in Paola at 10:30 and then I had to wait there in the car by myself for like 2 hours! It was so weird to be alone... I walked up the steps and I didn’t hear anyone else coming behind me and it was really strange. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I come home and someone leaves me by myself for the first time! Anyway I picked up Anziano Ruiz and we headed Back to Cosenza. It was soooo rainy and the fog was crazy thick! I could barely see the trees on the sides of the road as we drove through the mountains! We got back and Anziano Ruiz unpacked, I made lunch and we got right into the work! We did some finding and then went to English Course. There weren’t very many people for some reason, maybe it was the weather but we still had a good time! Then we had to set up the Christmas tree for the Primary, they decorated it yesterday in Church. 

Friday was the longest mission leadership council I’ve ever had but it was super exciting and inspiring! We set a monthly goal for our mission to reach 25 baptisms in December and 410 new Investigators mission wide! It’s going to be hard but we are going to push our Zone to pull our weight and get 3 of those baptisms and 60 of those new Investigators! We went and got some kebab after and I finally took a picture and a video of it so y’all can see what it is. Then we came home and did weekly Planning and studies while some guy came to fix our shower. We’ve been turning it on with pliers since I got here so it’s nice to have it fixed! Finding, finding, finding! We’ve given out so many #LightTheWorld pass along cards and talked to so many people! 

Saturday we went and visited Sister Spadafora again to introduce Anziano Ruiz! Of course she was cooking something! This time it was some fried dough thing covered in honey. We ate a plate full of them... in case you’re wondering 6 Months to Sexy is going real well for me! I called one of our Investigators and he answered and said “When can we meet and I can introduce my whole family to you?” Well we were super excited! We were supposed to meet them Saturday but his wife got sick with a fever... it’s going around. So we were bummed! 

Sunday was great! I have really come to love Fasting Testimony Meeting! We heard some really great testimonies and then the Branch President did a lesson on the Light the World initiative and we got new Home Teaching assignments! 

We went to Sister Minieri’s for lunch and we ate pretty well followed by some service! She’s having some new cabinets put in so we had to take everything out of the old ones and move them out! We were supposed to go today to bring the new ones upstairs but they aren’t bringing them today. 

We brought the Sacrament to Sister Filipelli and her daughter was visiting from the North with their two kids. We had a really nice Book of Mormon study as a family and then we did the sacrament, it was a wonderful night!

We came back to Cosenza and did some finding in the rain! The clouds have to be about empty! All it’s done is rain here! 

It’s been such a good week, I’m so excited for this Transfer and we’re seeing miracles everyday! I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Anziano Bellucci

Cosenza Transfer 12 Week 6

This was the last week of the Transfer! I can’t believe that’s another one gone! It was a pretty good one but the weird thing is... all of the sisters that I came into the mission with fly home tomorrow morning! Which means I only have 4 transfers left! Where did the time go???

So last week my email game was pretty rough... we went to Taranto for P-Day and to do an exchange and so we were at the Church there and the WiFi there is about as bad as it was in Napoli!

So after P-Day I started my exchange with Anziano Strong, we headed out to Statte to do some finding! Anziano Strong is in his 9th Transfer, one older than Anziano Allen and he’s doing pretty well! He’s from Colorado, he’s a little nerdy but he’s super funny! He’s one of those people that just throw out those one liners out of no where it they’re usually pretty quiet. He’s working on being bold and getting the courage to talk to people so we went to Statte which is this pretty small city but it’s where there Church is and we did some finding, and we talked to everyone! Literally I even felt a little creepy because I was crossing the street to chase down people and we had a lot of success! We even found a family that said we could come over to their house and they accepted a Book of Mormon! It was a good night, we came back to Taranto, got some panzarotti (fried calzones) and headed home for the night!

Tuesday was a really good day as well, one of the members in Statte asked us to do some service moving some things out of their house so we decided to move the day around and go first thing at 8 AM. So we get there and he says “Anziani, I thought you would have come in normal clothes!” And then we learned we were carried everything but the kitchen sink out of their house and it was a bigger job then we anticipated! But the mission teaches you a lot and one thing I’ve learned is you can do almost anything in a shirt and tie! It was good and we were done in about an hour and a half! They gave us some Nutella croissants and we were on our way, we decided to do our studies in the Statte Church because it’s a lot closer than going back to the house in Taranto and then we headed over to Massafra which is another little city in their area but it’s bigger than Statte so we did some finding there and found another family! My goal for that scambio was to talk to every family I saw and it definitely paid off! We had lunch back at the apartment before heading back to Cosenza! Just in time for English Course and that was the day!

Wednesday we finally got to work in Cosenza! We spent the morning at the University and gave out like 500 pass along cards and then we had lunch with Lina on Campus. So she showed us like their dining hall/cafeteria and it was crazy! There was so much food and so many people! Craziness! It was really fun though and we met one of her friends! We saw the crazy big family on Wednesday night, the house was pretty quiet and we were able to hone in on the Mom and the Dad and one of the sons named Nelson which was sweet, we taught them the whole Restoration and made some plans to teach them in the future! Unfortunately after we left they texted us and asked for money which was kind of a bummer because we were worried they were only interested because they saw the Church as a bank account. But when we explained that we couldn’t give them money they understood and said “See You Sunday!” So hopefully we’re good!

Thursday was of Course Thanksgiving and Mamma Mia was it a good day! We woke up at 5:30 and hit the road for Crotone! We went to the Heymans and they sent us on the hunt for a Turkey baster! This turkey was 32 lbs! It barely fit in the oven we had to amputate half the legs to get him in there! We had so much fun cooking and eating and we had District Meeting before we ate. Everyone brought different things from their traditions... here’s the list! We had... Turkey, mashed potatoes, candied carrots, stuffing, jalapeño cornbread stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese with bacon, more than a gallon of homemade gravy, cornbread, homemade apple pie, homemade pumpkin pie, carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate pumpkin bread and so on... we had about enough food for 30 people. It was a good day and Sister Heyman went all out with table decorations and everything! I have quite a few pictures! We made it back in time for English Course and we taught them about Thanksgiving of Course!

Friday we weekly planned in the morning and then in the evening... I don’t actually remember what we did but I’m sure it was good!

Saturday we had to get stuff for the Activity and then we spent the morning calling everyone and trying to get people to come. Then in the afternoon we got set up for the Activity. It was an absolute train wreck... we’ll just leave it at that. There was food so it wasn’t a total fail but it was a missionary activity and like no one came so I was a little frustrated but the people that did come did seem to have fun.

Sunday was a solid day, we left for Church at like 8:30 and didn’t come back home until 9:10 last night! Church was super solid, there was a member of the Stake Presidency from Bari so it was cool to see him and his wife. One of the African New Converts brought a friend named John and he was absolutely crazy but we taught him the Restoration during second hour and it went pretty well! He’s a new investigator now. Then we went to lunch with the Favre Family, they’re way cool! Lina just got home from her mission in July, she served in Colorado and the rest of them are just super great members. We had a lot of fun and told stories from our childhood. Then we went to visit Sister Filipelli and she is looking so much better! She’s not on an IV and she’s not having too much pain. Then we went and visited Sister Minieri. We shared the new #LightTheWorld video with all of them!

This morning I wripped my pants so today we’re going shopping! Haha we are in Catanzaro so it should be a good day!

Have a great week and remember “Jesus is the reason for the season!”

Love,

Anziano Bellucci